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dandv

Annoying Autocomplete Behavior

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dandv    0

This has been annoying me for many months, but I only got around to reporting it now:

 

1. In some directory, press Shift+F4 to create a file. Name the file "testing_NDN".

2. Press Shift+F4 again and start typing "testing_Firefox" as the new filename.

 

Notice that as you type, you can't see the typed characters, and there is no indication of where the cursor is. The pop-up autocomplete dialog is neither movable, nor resizable. If you press Esc after typing, say, "testin", the entire Shift+F4 dialog will close, not just the autocomplete pop-up. If you select "testing_NDN" from the pop-up and press Enter, then go and delete "NDN", the pop-up will appear again. It becomes annoying (at least for me) to try to use the autocomplete, so I just go ahead and blindly type "testing_Firfox".

 

Proposed solution: enlarge the outer input dialog box so that the autocomplete pop-up shows up below the input line, and the user can see what they're typing.

 

Another issue with one-line input boxes (Shift+F4, Alt+F6) is that if the cursor is at the end of the input field, pressing right arrow will move it to the buttons. IMO, the cursor should stay at the end of the line, and only Tab should switch focus from the input line.

 

HTH,

Dan

 

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Hi Dan.

 

I know of the problem:

[-] Smart histories: don't draw over the inputline, draw over window boundaries

 

First of all, it's a Turbo Vision limitation not to be able to draw over the boundaries of the

owner of any TV object. This requires me to lift that limit without breaking anything.

 

Second, you may close the history window with ALT or CTRL, or turn off the feature

if you don't need it. :P

 

Selecting with CURSOR KEYS additionally to (SHIFT-)TAB was a user wish, which I thought

is not that bad. Should it be optional?

 

Stefan / AH

 

PS: I fixed the git priority bug

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dandv    0
Second, you may close the history window with ALT or CTRL

Neat, didn't know about that!

 

Selecting with CURSOR KEYS additionally to (SHIFT-)TAB was a user wish, which I thought

is not that bad. Should it be optional?

IMO I'd like the cursor to select among buttons, once the user switches to the group of buttons with (Shift+)TAB from the edit line.

 

PS: I fixed the git priority bug

 

Cool!

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dandv    0
Selecting with CURSOR KEYS additionally to (SHIFT-)TAB was a user wish, which I thought

is not that bad. Should it be optional?

IMO I'd like the cursor to select among buttons, once the user switches to the group of buttons with (Shift+)TAB from the edit line.

 

After some more though, I definitely would want that.

 

Imagine the File Find dialog. Focus on the "Text to find" edit line. Now up arrow will go to the field above (File Mask), but down arrow will not go to the field below.

 

Another use pattern is when the user wants to move the cursor to the beginning of the edit line. Most of the time, my fingers are over the arrow keys, and on some laptops, the keyboard layout is so annoying that I avoid using the Home key whenever I can (on the ASUS EEE you have to press Fn+left arrow to get Home). So if the cursor is on one of the first few characters in the edit line, I prefer to keep the left arrow pressed until it reaches the beginning of the line (instead of pressing Home). The problem is that in the new approach. I can't just keep left arrow pressed, because after the cursor reaches column 1 in the edit line, it will go to the previous field. This also contradicts standard usage in browsers and prety much any operating system / UI I've seen :)

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Hi Dan!

 

The cursor = TAB feature is pretty old already.

You maybe never realized it until now? :)

 

In the last release I only changed the behaviour of start and end of the inputlines.

But I found out that this "feature" is not intuitive and I decided to remove it again

for the next release.

 

See you,

Stefan / AH

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